


Rosemary

by tea_for_lupin



Series: The Herball [1]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Healing, Herbalism, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Memory, Plants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-05
Updated: 2013-10-05
Packaged: 2017-12-28 11:53:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/991713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tea_for_lupin/pseuds/tea_for_lupin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rosemary; that's for remembrance, thinks John. The cliche slips in, supple, unbidden as a cat. He turns it over.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rosemary

Rosemary; that's for remembrance, thinks John. The cliche slips in, supple, unbidden as a cat. He turns it over. 

Fragrance waxes greenly from crushed leaves, dark pointed needles, pale underneath. This has nothing to do with me, John thinks, or Sherlock, who saw plants only as he saw people: ciphers of complex chemicals, more or less volatile, more or less inert. Capable of being deduced. 

Verbinol, camphor, linalool; the relentlessness of resins, clinging stickily to the skin. Evergreen perennial; likes sun. The stems go woody in winter, waiting for spring. Grows well from cuttings; plant deeply, keep moist. Watch your grief change, as it flares out roots and wavers in the wind, all raw, and soft, and new.

Medicinal properties: thymoleptic, stimulant, circulatory, nervine. A cordial plant, help for the overthinking head. If it had come to us earlier, thinks John. It could never have been enough.

To his medical mind the plant makes no sense. Only: the flowers are blue, the colour of eyes. Sherlock's eyes, John thinks, and closes his own. It will ward the dreams from your bed. He doesn't believe it. 

It works, anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Rosemary: 'The Ancients were well acquainted with the shrub, which had a reputation for strengthening the memory. On this account it became the emblem of fidelity for lovers.' 
> 
> ''Also put the leaves under thy bedde and thou shalt be delivered of all evill dreames.''
> 
> Thanks Mrs Grieves: http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/r/rosema17.html


End file.
